Twenty-five years ago, it was the beginning of a new millennium. When I thought you read books. When I thought you didn’t watch much television. When I thought you hiked. When I thought you watched the stars. When I thought you liked poetry. When I slept on the ground. Before social media. When I was young. Twenty-five years ago I …
And that’s all folks, that’s the last of the 8mm films my Dad shot in the 1950s and 1960s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ae3Gu33SQo&t=1s My mother bought the 8mm camera and a projector by saving Green Stamps. Remember those? Here are my mother’s annotations. The film is not in chronological order. I don’t care. Don’t watch if the fact that this stuff is out …
My friend, Chuck Suchy. Lay You Down In a Cattail Bed
My friend, Darrell Dorgan, is comfortably ensconced in his condo in south Florida, spending his days walking his dog, Coco, on the beach, but as a lifelong newsman in North Dakota, he’s keeping up with the news back home in Bismarck. He spent some time this past week digging into what’s going on in the North Dakota Legislature and sent …
One of the video interviews I did with my Mother in her elder years.
Skillet meals are great for people who are pressed for time or those who don’t care to put a lot of time into a meal. I’m retired, so the former isn’t an issue, but a lot of times its just nice to put an entree together in a short amount of time. The following recipe fits the latter category. I …
This is a homage to California. The humble abode in which my parents lived in El Monte in 1958 before they moved the little house trailer to Ellsworth Air Force Base. When they left California, pulling the trailer, with (then) two little kids and another on the way, they headed across the desert, skirting around the mountains, heading in a …
Sacha Boisvert scored 2:19 into overtime to lift the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 4-3 National Collegiate Hockey Conference win over Arizona State University on Saturday night in Tempe, Ariz. The No. 14-ranked Fighting Hawks (12-8-1 overall, 7-3-0 NCHC) lost the series opener 4-1 to the No. 16 Sun Devils (11-8-1 overall, 6-4-0 NCHC) Friday night. …
I’m reprinting this story from The Dickinson Press. It’s one of the most heart-warming stories I’ve found in a newspaper in a long, long time. By Jacob Cheris The Dickinson Press January 10, 2025 at 6:10 a.m. DICKINSON, N.D. — DHS junior swimmer Bohdan Shevchenko has already made a name for himself in his short time in the Dickinson community. This …
The new Bob Dylan movie, which was excellent, has generated a lot of talk about Bob, and newspapers and magazines are writing about it a lot. Here in North Dakota, The Forum has done a few stories because Dylan did a brief stopover there between Hibbing, Minn., and New York. He played with a couple of bands, briefly — including …
She was so much fun. This was taken at her last birthday party. But I have more.
I’ve been thinking about whether to stay on Facebook, and I’ve decided at least for now to stay. The simple truth is that the concept of Facebook began as a way to rate women at Harvard, which is despicable. So the recent decision by Mark Zuckerberg further solidifies the lack of character he has. However, for me, it has become …
It’s Jan. 7. The results of a free and fair election were confirmed Monday in a peaceful transfer of power . Although the election did not go as I had hoped, this is what democracy looks like. Not violent insurrection. So what now? Stacey Abrams recently said that we shouldn’t focus now on resistance but insistence, and I like that …
This is an original essay by Lillian Crook, Dickinson State College English seminar writing course required submission for Senior Level Course credit (1981). This had been a bad year, lots of snow and ice and that terrible cold wind. More new calves than ever had died, and if he had to watch one more not pull through, Maggie knew she …
1977. 1978. Spring Lake ice fishing (southwest of Rhame, N.D.), 1971. Earl and Lena Belle Crook visit the Slope County farm, 1973. El Paso, Texas (Marian, Sarah, Thomas, and The White Cat.) Garland Crook and his son, Thomas, visiting Vaiden, Miss. Garland Crook, back in South Korea for the second time. The Crook kids in El Paso, Texas. Jasper Earl …
Mac Swanson, Dalton Andrew, Dane Montgomery, Carter Wilkie and Cody Croal scored goals and goalies Hobie Hedquist and T.J. Semptimphelter each had eight saves to lead the University of North Dakota men’s hockey team to a 5-0 exhibition win over the University of Manitoba on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The Fighting Hawks (11-7-1) led just 2-0 after two …
My readers know I am a gardener. It’s a love I inherited from my father, who each summer grew a garden full of vegetables, with varying degrees of success, to treat his family to fresh produce. Fresh produce wasn’t something you could get in grocery stores in rural North Dakota in the 1950s and 1960s. But we had ’em, and …
Penance Playlist 2025 Mother Maybelle Carter. Nanci Griffith (everything she ever wrote and sang and recorded and performed). Sara Watkins. Lucinda Williams. Brandi Carlisle. Gillian Welch. Phoebe Snow. Carly Simon. Tanya Savory. Joni Mitchell. Patty Loveless. Katie Lee. Celeste Krenz. Lucy Kaplansky. Sarah Jarosz. Janis Ian. Tanya Tucker. Billie Holiday. Loretta Lynn. Tish Hinojosa. Iris DeMent. Shawn Colvin. Dolly Parton. …
Jimmy Carter was my hero — a man who embodied what it means to not only talk the talk but walk the walk. Much has been said of his post-presidency, where he spoke out for the Palestinian people, waged war on the Guinea Worm, advocated for free and fair elections and transformed the world of affordable housing with dignity and …
Although the Grandma for whom I’m named was Norwegian, I love to make these Swedish meatballs. Swedish Meatballs Meatballs: Two large leeks (the white portion, grated) 2 teaspoons of butter (I use good butter, preferably Irish butter) ⅔ cup of milk 4 to 5 slices of bread, crusts removed (I use a grain bread when I have it on hand.) …
On Saurday, I went to a Bismarck grocery store to buy leeks. Nice man from India working in the produce section had not heard of leeks, so I described leeks, and he found leeks under the loose carrots. He asked me how I cook leeks and said he will try that. We both smiled. I found some Greek yogurt. Paid …
“Words are like shards of glass. By themselves they’re worthless, however, when placed together in just the right way, they can become great works of art.” ― Leigh M. Lane
What’s your favorite day of the week? Mine’s Thursday. It used to be Saturday back in my working days, but now … in retirement, pretty much every day is Saturday. But Thursday is now my favorite day because that’s the day the two weekly newspapers I subscribe to arrive in my mailbox. Well, not my outside mailbox, but my computer …
“The Moon Comes Walking On with Me,” by Colonel Paul Southworth Bliss,December 21, 1931. Original woodcuts by Harold J. Matthews. From an inscribed copy of “The Arch of Spring.” And some Christmas memories of my own. While I watch the neighborhood kids sledding today in the sunshine, I was taken back to a thousand memories of sledding and skiing and …
Christmas is a time for dreams, and for dreamers. It’s a time of wonder. I wonder … There’s a proposal making the rounds to create a new National Monument in western North Dakota, encompassing 11 areas in the North Dakota Bad Lands, land owned by the federal government but leased to ranchers for grazing their cattle. What if those ranchers out …
The Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we regretted The …
My December 2024 Letter to the Editors of North Dakota newspapers Yes, the president can designate a national monument with the stroke of a pen, using the Antiquities Act. Thank you, Theodore Roosevelt, for creating that act. Famously, TR arrived on a train and lived and ranched in the North Dakota Badlands. (Later his wife, Edith, and his sister would …
Enter the North Dakota Librarian by Gary Gildner Paris Review Spring 2002 whose eyes are a fair, spiky green I only see on my hands and knees at spring’s initial offerings, how can she help me? I say I seek the bloom clarity achieves fending off confusion’s weedy waylays upon rich indirection, I hope I won’t be much trouble. Her lips forming …
There’s a good reason I don’t send “Letters to the Editor” of daily newspapers. I can usually reach the audience I want to reach here on my blog. It’s mine, and I can say whatever I damn well please. And I do. And if someone disagrees with me, they can just start their own blog. But then right-wing oil industry …
I’m just throwing this out here that the holidays are when people start dropping crazy uncle stories into conversations. It’s crazy if your uncle protested the Vietnam War and drove a VW van to Woodstock, where he dropped LSD and bootlegged some free love, but is now a Trump supporter. ”I think there’s the one person in any group of …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team came from behind three times to defeat No. 9-ranked St. Cloud State University 4-3 in overtime Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. Jake Schmaltz netted the winner for the No. 16-ranked Fighting Hawks (11-7-1 overall, 6-2-0 National Collegiate Hockey Conference), while Jaden Perron, Abram Wiebe and Sacha Boisvert each scored once in …
“Winter Rainbow,” by Paul Southworth Bliss, from his book of poetry Cirrus From the West published in 1935. Out of the oakland, Out of the pineland, Near the time of sunset, I came to the un-treed plains. On the frost-struck air There lay two segments Of a mighty wheel, Sunk to the sun-hub In the glistening prairie. The inner ring …
Baking for the holidays has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Both my Grandma Menard and my Mom were excellent bakers, as was my Aunt Harriet Hendrickson. I helped my Mom a couple of times during the holidays, but it was a humbling experience. Mom was so good and I was such a …
Billings County Commissioners, in a 2-1 vote at a special meeting Wednesday, agreed to stop all legal action concerning the proposed Little Missouri River Crossing for 60 days, or until a settlement can be reached to put an end to the condemnation of the Short Ranch property for construction of a road and bridge. The language of the motion was …
You’ve heard me say this before: Elections have consequences. Even in tiny remote places like Billings County in the North Dakota Bad Lands, where a total of just 628 people voted in the races for the Billings County Commission this past month. In Billings County, commissioners are elected to represent geographic districts. The county is divided into three of them. …
It took 70 years, but photographer Jeff Olson and his wife, Joanne Plager Burke Olson, made it to Hawaii. They visited the Big Island and Kauai, the garden sland. From a rainbow over Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to remote beaches and Waimea Canyon, everything was stunning. And they also made it to the westernmost bookstore in the U.S. and the …
The University of North Dakota men’s hockey team and Bemidji State University skated to a 3-3 tied on Saturday night in Ralph Engelstad Arena. The No. 14-ranked Fighting Hawk (7-7-1) received goals from Owen McLaughlin, Carter Wilkie and Jake Schmaltz. The Beavers (7-6-2), who won Friday night’s game in Bemidji 2-1, had goals from Adam Flammang, Reilly Funk and Noah …
A group of dedicated North Dakotans has put together a proposal that will bring significant recognition to the North Dakota Bad Lands. They are my heroes. The project is the creation of a new national monument, the Maah Daah Hey National Monument. If the project succeeds, it will be an immense source of pride for all North Dakotans. A little …
If you want to understand the difference between Christian nationalism and being a Christ follower look no further than the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. This man who spouts off about “Christian values” spent Wednesday trying to silence a damning ethics report of a man whose vile publicly admitted actions make him unqualified to be attorney general, in order …
I realize we’re in our post-election honeymoon period during which everyone has amnesia or hangovers, and platitudes are the order of the day, but in consideration of journalistic integrity — if we’re still doing that — honesty is in order. We can’t “sane-tize” this. This has been the weirdest damn thing. And it may get even weirder. I went to …
The five most dangerous words in the English language for a journalist (of which I am one, of a sort — I keep this online journal) are “I’m not a lawyer, but …” OK, so there’s been this legal case going on for about 10 years involving Billings County and the Short family over whether there is going to be …
You probably didn’t know Vern Frederick. He was a quiet, humble rancher/farmer from down near Flasher, N.D., (one of the best town names ever), a big, strong, hard-working man, dedicated to his loving wife, Bonnie, a polio victim tied to a wheelchair most of her adult life, whose farming operation was always on the cutting edge of the latest techniques …
